Oz promoters will adopt zero tolerance on fake scalped tickets

BE careful where you buy concert tickets from now on. If they’re fakes, you won’t be allowed in as promoters crack down on illegal scalping.

More Australians are being burned by tickets purchased through unauthorised resellers Picture: iStock

MUSIC promoters will adopt a zero-tolerance policy on fake tickets to stamp out scalping and tackle the rise of unauthorised secondary ticket selling sites.

Music promoter Michael Chugg said his company will not accommodate fans who purchased invalid tickets from websites such as Viagogo or Gumtree that turn out to be non-genuine.

Tickets purchased from an unauthorised seller will be verified as fraudulent and voided.

The issue came to a head last week when more than 50 people turned up to a UB40 gig in Fremantle with ‘fake’ tickets.

“Someone used six stolen credit cards and bought a whole lot of UB40 tickets from Oztix, then sold them to Viagogo and other places who sold them on,” Chugg said.

“Innocent people bought these fraudulent tickets, we had 50 odd people turn up to see UB40 with these tickets and we had to turn them away.

Victims: UB40’s Astro and Ali Campbell got caught up in a stolen ticket scam, angering fans.

“I feel really bad about it. But if we let people in with dud tickets they’ll get the attitude ‘Oh well, I might have bought a dud ticket but they’ll let me in’. There’s no choice.”

Helen Knight, a 56-year-old grandmother, wrote to Chugg Entertaiment after being told her UB40 tickets were fake when she presented them at the reggae band’s concert in Fremantle.

Chugg has teamed with touring rival Michael Gudinski and his Frontier company to present a united front to politicians in Canberra.

They want a Government policy to police scalping and inflated ticket prices, similar to ones for major sporting events.

“We have to try and stop this for once and for all,” Chugg said.

“It has to happen. At the moment the Government cares more about the sporting events and ticket scalping than they do about the music industry. The music industry brings in millions, even billions, in overseas and local earnings. The live music industry employs thousands of people. We need to be more respected. Once you sit down with politicians and explain it they understand it. But there’s not enough understanding of how our industry works at a federal and local government level. That’s the problem we face.”

Brian Chladil, co-founder and director of Oztix said ‘secondary ticketing’ is the new term for scalping.

“It’s legalised scalping,” Chladil said “It is legal too. You can’t legislate against capitalism. People are entitled to buy and sell things at a profit. No one stops you getting on eBay and buying a $500 car and selling it for $1000 the next day. The only difference is with music everyone is emotive about it. You’re not as emotional about a new car than you are about seeing the Rolling Stones play at the Enmore Theatre.”

Adele tickets are being offered on the Viagogo website at inflated prices.

Sites such as Viagogo, who have no authorised links to ticketing companies or promoters, claim to know how many tickets are left for various events and urge customers to buy them before they sell out. The site often comes up first when punters are Googling terms such as ‘Adele Australian tickets’.

“We heard about a woman paying $900 for Adele tickets and then got charged another $900 in booking fees,” Chugg said. “They couldn’t even tell her where the seats were and they wouldn’t let her cancel. And a woman in Adelaide a few weeks ago wanted to see a Jimmy Barnes show and paid $390 for a ticket. The show wasn’t sold out. Her daughter Googled the proper ticket agency and told her she could have bought the same ticket for $110. It really is getting out of control.

“Innocent people who don’t normally go to a lot of shows are seeing Viagogo at the top of the search engines and they’re not an authorised seller. There’s a huge number of casual fans, people pick and choose what they want to go to, but they might not know the culture of how to buy tickets without risk. It’s also hitting the hardcore fanatics who are desperate to go to a show no matter what, they take the punt then they get stuffed over because the tickets might not even exist or they’ve been stolen.

“The world is getting smaller, everything’s global, and Viagogo and these sites are international, they’re not just doing it here, we’ve now become part of that world and we have to deal with it There never used to be a big scalping problem in Australia, but there f**king is now.”

Chladil said the company has increased its rate of fraud detection, following major losses two years ago from gangs using stolen credit cards.

Singer Jimmy Barnes. Picture: Simon Cross

Veteran promoter Michael Chugg.

“There needs to be Government regulation that says ‘This is a reseller site, this is not the official, accredited site, not the authorised agent’,” Chladil said.

“What would solve it all is that there should be legislation that lets ticket companies become like travel agencies or real estate agents, there should be regulated ticket agents. I’d be happy to be regulated, that would knock out all the cowboys. Once those laws are in place the government can then legislate people getting around those laws.”

Chugg said punters need to make sure they are buying their tickets from legitimate outlets, not risking secondary sites, reselling sites or Gumtree or eBay.

“We put very clearly on all our advertising and websites, as all the promoters do, please buy through the website, do not use unauthorised agencies. If you go to the promoter website or the band’s own website and hit the button to buy tickets it takes you straight to the right place. We’ve got to keep the pressure on the government and trying to educate the punters because it’s becoming a big mess.”

Originally published as Oz promoters will adopt zero tolerance on fake scalped tickets